Loading ...In this week’s training session I want to cover the Ab major scale and exploratory exercises. For beginner players, focus on memorizing the notes of the scale and where they are on your fretboard. More experienced players can play through the exercises, the scale in 5ths, rhythmic variations and sample bass line as well as add the scale exercise ideas [...]
Ever go to a concert to see a guitarist with 2 dozen picks on their mic stand and wonder “For 90 minutes of music does this joker really need that many picks?” Besides the looking cool factor when he or she carelessly throws half of them into the crowd, grip is a major factor. Hot lights, 20% more people than [...]
A little over a year ago Elixir said, “We’re gonna make the best bass string ever!” Please note this is not a direct quote. Seriously though, Elixir hit the streets, sent out surveys along with prototypes of strings to truly learn what bass players wanted in a bass string. The result was their new Stainless Steel set in the Nanoweb [...]
Spring has sprung and training has begun! Just because we use our fine motor skills and not the gross ones does not mean we don’t work as hard as any of the ball players out there. They run laps and throw balls, we drill scales! In this weeks lesson I am tying in some old and introducing some new scale [...]
In this weeks lesson, I want to cover one of the most commonly used scales, the Pentatonic Minor. This scale comes from the natural minor scale. If you have never heard of the natural minor scale, that is the scale formed when you start any major scale on its’ 6th degree. For example, take the notes of your Bb major [...]
Just like I would want to taste and know every ingredient I would use in my favorite chili recipe, I like to know what I play in my bass lines. It could be chord tones, scale notes, passing chromatics. All of these things are helpful in being able to identify. Why? These are our tools. Guitarists have chords (which I [...]
I could start this review off writing how no one has free time, but you don’t have the time to read it! Most of us don’t have the luxury of locking ourselves in a room for 4 hours at a time to practice, so we grab 5, 10, 15 minutes here and there to learn new tunes and keep our [...]
Transposition in music is when we move notes exact order to another starting point. This new starting point could be a scale, chord or key. What can be transposed is anything from a simple groove to a complex melody. Most of us have transposed to some degree in our playing careers. If you’ve played blues bass lines before then you [...]
Welcome back for part two of my interview with the wonderful Mr. Ralphe Armstrong. In this segment Ralphe talks about his favorite electric basses, the need for us all to embrace new technology and lesson times with and the inspiration he recieved from Ron Carter, Ray Brown and Buster Williams. JS - Tell me about your times with Ron Carter. Ralphe - Ron Carter was [...]
Is your strap the jealous type that tangles itself up creating a rift between you and your beloved guitar? Tell it who’s boss as you walk it down the hallway to the garbage! Well OK, your current strap probably doesn’t have a vendetta against you, or any real human feelings at all, but I’ve got some straplocks by Loxx and [...]
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